1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product holder which accommodates and holds a product such as an electronic device component, a semiconductor wafer or the like in order to convey and transport the product or to carry out a sputtering treatment or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor manufacturing device, a semiconductor surface treating device, or the like is designed for semiconductors having diameters of 6 inches, 8 inches, and 12 inches. Accordingly, when semiconductors having diameters other than the abovementioned diameters are to be processed by the semiconductor surface treating device or the like, a special product holder is needed. The product holder is used to fix in advance the product such as the electronic device component, the semiconductor wafer or the like in the case of conveying and transporting the product or carrying out a sputtering treatment or the like for the product, from the viewpoint of preventing the product from being contaminated or damaged. A holder formed by silicon or quartz has been conventionally used.
However, a product holder formed by silicon or quartz does not have sufficient strength. There arises a problem that the product holder formed by silicon or quartz is often cracked at the time of conveyance and transportation thereof or at the time of the sputtering treatment or the like. When the product holder formed by silicon or quartz is used, a portion of the product which abuts the product holder is apt to be contaminated by the product holder. Namely, as shown in FIG. 8, an other end surface 10b of a product 10, which other end surface 10b contacts a bottom surface 2a of a product accommodating portion 2 of a product holder 1 and opposes an exposed one end surface 10a of the product 10, is apt to be contaminated by the product holder 1. Therefore, cleaning the product holder by acids in advance to eliminate contamination of the product holder has been considered. However, in the above case, there arises a problem that the product is melted by the acids. Further, there arises a problem that a product holder formed by transparent quartz cannot be detected by an infrared ray sensor.